CHENNAI: Four persons died and two others grievously injured in an accident involving car and canter lorry near Mamallapuram in East Coast Road (ECR) on Sunday morning.
The mishap occurred around 5.45 am between Kunnathur and Madamai village in Mamallapuram – Kalpakkam stretch of ECR when a canter lorry bound to Kalpakkam collided head on with a car with six persons moving towards Chennai from Puducherry.
The six persons are said to have been attached to a charitable trust in Puducherry and were on their way to Chennai to offer prayers at a temple in T-Nagar.
While passing the Kunnathur village near Mamallapuram on two-lane ECR, the truck driver allegedly lost control over the vehicle and collided with the car coming from the opposite direction.
The ECR between Akkarai and Mamallapuram upgraded into four, while the road beyond that remains accident prone as the two lane road has no median.
In this impact, three persons travelled in the car, Senthil Kumar (40) of Vellore, Murugan (53) and Sundaravarathanan (54) of Puducherry killed on the spot.
Acting on the passerby alert, Mamallapuram police rushed the spot and rescued three persons Jayabalan (67) of Panruti, Pranavamurthi (60) of Chennai and Thialagam (43) of Villupuram who got trapped in the
mangled remains of the car and sent them to Chengalpattu government hospital for treatment. Pranavamurthi succumbed to injuries at hospital around 1.30 pm.
The truck driver fled away from the spot. The vehicle movement disrupted for an hour. Mamallapuram police registered a case and a probe is underway.